On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin launched a nuclear submarine with Zircon hypersonic missiles that can travel at speeds up to several times faster than sound.

According to Russian news agencies citing a video from the Arctic port Murmansk Putin ordered the launch of the vessel named Perm, after a Urals city, with the following order: "I herewith authorise!"

Citing documents related to the launch, the Russian agencies said that the Perm was the first nuclear submarine equipped with Zircon as a standard.

Zircon missiles are very hard to defend because of their range (900 km or 560 miles).

The Perm submarine is the sixth in the Russian Yasen class and Yasen M class built by Sevmash near Murmansk.

According to the Russian news agency, the vessel's construction differed slightly compared to earlier models of the same class.

According to the agencies, while in Murmansk Putin toured Atomflot, the enterprise that oversees Russia's projects for icebreakers, as well as a submarine called Arkhangelsk. (Reporting and Editing by Lisa Shumaker).

(source: Reuters)